Save George Berkich Park at Cardiff ELEMENTARY School

BoUNDARY ADJUSTMENT TO SWAP PARKING LOT FOR PARK

The open space at Berkich Park is protected by a Land and Water Conservation Fund Agreement that promises it will remain a park in perpetuity. The Cardiff School District has
proposed a construction project that will violate this Agreement. Instead of keeping construction off the open space, the District is applying to the National Park Service for a
boundary adjustment.

Note that in the Proposed 6(f)3 Boundary image that the area that encloses the "new park" will be roughly 25% paved parking lot. The current park is 100% useable for recreational activities
and does not include any paved parking area. How is this an equitable swap of open space for parking lot? The LWCF Park Stewardship Guide specifically states that replacement land
must be of "equal utility and value subject to National Park Service approval".

Also note that the Proposed Boundary carefully outlines the new school buildings rendering smaller pockets of park land that do not have the same utility as the current large, open space.
Compare the Proposed Boundary to the Current Boundary and it is easy to see that the open space at Berkich Park is being destroyed in hasty land grab.

Open space at Berkich Park with current 6(f)3 boundary

GEORGE BERKICH PARK IS LEGALLY PROTECTED

New information has been discovered showing that the controversial plan to build on George Berkich Park violates state and federal park protections.

In 1993, the Cardiff School District, the City of Encinitas and the California State Department of Parks and Recreation entered into an agreement to rehabilitate George Berkich Park. This agreement is part of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) which provides federal-state grants
for site projects in exchange for a promise that those sites will "remain open for public outdoor recreation use". The sites under protection are "not to be converted
to another use without National Park Service approval". Information about compliance responsibilities can be found here.

It has come to our attention that the Cardiff School District created a plan to build on George Berkich Park without realizing that the park land was under LWCF protections and therefore
cannot be built upon without first going through a process of formal conversion with the State Department of Parks and Recreations. Failure to follow the conversion process can result in
repercussions such as jeopardizing future federal/state grant money for the entire City of Encinitas.

The above Construction Boundary Overlay image shows the LWCF Section 6(f)(3) boundary map (represented by the dotted
red line) superimposed on the latests construction plan from the district. This overlay clearly shows that the construction will be in direct violation of the LWCF Agreement. The
shaded yellow area shows new construction that will be on what is currently George Berkich Park land. The blue shaded areas show current construction that was built after
1993 in violation of the LWCF Agreement. It could be argued that this construction should be converted back to open space because this land was never explicitly cleared
for conversion by the State Department of Parks and Recreation.

our park should remain untouched

The LWCF Agreement ensured that George Berkich Park would remain open park space in perpetuity. Why is the Cardiff School District attempting to take this land away? The very
idea of the LWCF Program is to increase parklands especially in areas where open space is particularly at risk. In a densely populated neighborhood such as Cardiff, where land is in
high demand, it is critical to hold on to the few remaining acres of open space available to the public. This protection is what the LWCF Agreement was designed to provide.

In the past year, residents have expressed their displeasure with the direction of Measure GG construction plans. These plans have
downplayed the importance of open space and have made poor trade-offs such as destroying fields to make larger parking areas and to construct large buildings of marginal utility. But until
the LWCF Agreement was discovered, residents had to negotiate with the Bond Implementation Team and the School District on the fuzzy grounds that we just "didn't like the plan". Now
things have changed.

This is no longer a debate about design, but rather has become one about conservation. If Cardiff cannot preserve a park that is supposed to be federally protected in perpetuity, what
hope do we have for preserving any open space at all? If the few members of the Measure GG planning committee can erase chunks of our beloved park without regard for contractual obligations
bounding those very people to protect the land, what kind of community do we live in?

Allowing any protected land to slip away will certainly erode the character of Cardiff and send a message to developers about what residents of Cardiff find
important.

This Sign is Required By Law to Be Posted At George Berkich Park

A Photograph of the Current Sign Posted at George Berkich Park

Get involved

Preventing the School District from removing the protections on George Berkich Park is of the upmost importance. Make your voice heard before it is too
late!